When pets are provided with sleeping arrangements that are improperly designed, the results are often troublesome. Pets have a natural tendency to manipulate their sleeping area to create a nest and in the process often both soil and destroy the beds provided for them. There have been a number of attempts to provide desirable accommodations, but none has been completely satisfactory.
A number of designs, generally disclosing pillows or pet beds which are circular or oval in configuration have been described, for example, in Design Patents DES216,400; DES239,395; DES309,199; and DES386,832. These designs generally feature a depressed center surrounded by an elevated ridge, with or without an opening at one section of the ridge.
Additional features are described in, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 1,569,710 which describes a dog mat which is concave with an edge that is beveled to provide a head rest.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,032,248 describes a more complex stuffed mattress which has a specific design for receiving a bolster at the edge.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,902,456 describes a doughnut shaped pet bed with compressible filling in the pillow-like structure surrounding a flat center.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,332,214 discloses a bed with an integrated heating unit which includes a drainage system at one end through the heated portion.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,588,393 is directed to a collapsible pet bed which folds to form a flattened structure.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,662,065 describes a hollow pet bed with space below a top surface to permit insects to fall through into an interior space which is provided with an exterminating composition.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,685,257 describes a layered, assertedly hypo-allergenic and non-toxic, pet bed which contains absorbent and fill layers.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,911,193 describes a layered material for protecting animals from cold surfaces using a flexible pad which may optionally have a plurality of drainage holes distributed throughout.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,024,046 describes an impermeable foam bed which contains a hollowed portion in the center.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,209,486 describes a bed for incontinent animals where a sleeping pad is affixed to a frame and the sleeping pad is a non-absorbent open-weave material which permits urine to drain.
None of the disclosures above relate to inflatable beds. Other devices have been made in inflatable form, such as an exercise and play apparatus described in Design Patent DES366,085 and collapsible dog houses are described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,729,343.
Inflatable dog beds are commercially available in catalog sales. For example, hunting dog beds which are simple inflatable mattresses without further design features are advertised in Cabela's catalog for Fall of 1998. Air beds which can be deflated that contain a contiguous air bladder are described in Pet U.S.A.. L. L. Bean describes inflatable beds in various shapes with specialized cushion inserts in their 2001 catalog.
The present invention provides features unavailable in prior art pet beds by combining a multi-compartment concave inflatable design, the ability to include centralized drainage, and a removable, washable cover.